By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, April 16 (Reuters) – Valero Energy Corp has partially restarted its 380,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas refinery following a March 23 explosion and fire, said two people familiar with plant operations.
While the production line from the 115,000-bpd AVU 147 crude distillation unit (CDU) is operating, Valero is repairing the heater in the 210,000-bpd AVU-146 CDU, keeping that production line shut.
A Valero spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment.
During inspection of the refinery’s units following the March 23 shutdown of the refinery because of the fire, Valero discovered a damaged tube in AVU-146’s heater. Once the heater tube is repaired, Valero plans to restart the CDU.
The AVU-146 crude distillation unit accounts for 2% of crude oil refining capacity in the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, which contain 9.62 million bpd or over half of the U.S. total. In Texas alone, AVU-146’s capacity is 3.4% of the state’s total of 6.13 million bpd in atmospheric crude distillation capacity.
CDUs operate at atmospheric pressure breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at a refinery.
No injuries were reported from the March 23 explosion and fire in diesel hydrotreater, but one person has filed a lawsuit, alleging he was injured when knocked to the ground. Valero has previously declined to comment about the lawsuit.
The price of diesel went up 16 cents a barrel on the day following the explosion because of the refinery’s shutdown.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Nathan Crooks and Nick Zieminski)
